Edinburgh Napier University

  WO2005124612
Selected Indicative Claims:
1. A system for managing a timber resource comprising a number of forests each having a plurality of compartments, a transport infrastructure and a plurality of mills, which system includes: a management database containing information in regard to the compartments, the transport infrastructure and the mills; and a processing means for processing a number of alternative harvesting, transport and milling options, using a quantity model and a quality model of wood for each compartment, and the information in the database, to determine the financial result of each combination of options, and to determine the most financially preferred combination of options.

4. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the database contains details of the quantity of wood required by each mill.

6. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the database contains details of the quality of wood that each mill may process.
8. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the database contains geographical information about the timber resource.

11. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the processing means estimates, in use, the quantity and quality of timber that would be produced if a compartment were to be harvested in a particular given year, for each compartment that can possibly be harvested in that year, using growth models and quality models.

12. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the database contains cost details for different modes of transport of wood.
19. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, which provides, in use, a plan of operations to be performed in the timber resource to obtain a preferred financial result.

20. A method of managing a timber resource comprising a number of forests each having a plurality of compartments, a transport infrastructure and a plurality of mills, which method includes: providing a management database containing information in regard to the compartments, the transport infrastructure and the mills; and processing a number of alternative harvesting, transport and milling options, using a quantity model and a quality model for each compartment, to determine the financial result of each combination of options.

27. A method as claimed in any one of Claims 20 to 26 inclusive, in which the database includes geographical information about the forestry resource.

30. A method as claimed in Claim 29, in which the cost of transport of wood for each mode of transport from each compartment to each mill that could accept harvested timber from each compartment is taken into account when processing the number of alternative options.

33. A method as claimed in any one of Claims 20 to 32 inclusive, in which a set of quality models is contained in the database, and a selected quality model is assigned to each growth cycle of each compartment, to predict the quality of timber produced for each compartment for each permissible year of harvesting.
35. A method as claimed in Claim 34, which includes, in selecting the most profitable combination, taking into account one or more item selected from the group consisting of: any constraints on maximum harvesting volumes; constraints associated with replanting; maximum processing time at the mills; constraints resulting from lease conditions; management costs; and costs of sourcing timber from outside the timber resource.

36. A method as claimed in any one of Claims 20 to 35 inclusive, which includes taking into consideration whether or not timber in each compartment complies with certification requirements.